This bill declares that parents of an unemancipated child younger than 18 years of age have the right to make all decisions regarding their child’s health care and education; however, parents will not be given the authority to require their child to have an abortion.

A parent or guardian who home schools or sends his or her child to a private school will be allowed reimbursement upon providing satisfactory evidence of the schooling costs up to the amount of the county property taxes he or she paid that would have been given to the school district.

As far as I have seen in the last eight years here in Missouri, parents already make all the decisions concerning their children’s health care and education. My son and daughter-in-law haven’t complained about any interference.

If there have been any forced abortions, the newspaper hasn’t published articles about it.

As for the tax credit, if my actively homeschooling and private schooling neighbors get a pass on the county property taxes that would have been given to the school district because they don’t use the schools, I want one, too. All my kids are adults … and they pay the taxes, too.

It looks to me as if this legislation is abortion related, and that a special pass on taxes for homeschooling and private schooling parents is used as a ‘carrot’ to acquire support.

To my mind, this legislation decreases parental control by adding the first restriction on parents making health decisions. That looks like precedent.

1 response to Missouri parental rights legislation

A friend of my mom’s was forced to have an abortion by her father. He was hiding the fact that he’d molested (raped) her. This was in Iowa, not Missouri, but I’m sure it does happen (rarely), and no, it doesn’t make the papers, because after the abortion, there’s no evidence.